Book review: The future of development in the mining basin after or without phosphate
The same questions arise every time issues related to phosphate, wealth, the mining basin, the 2008 mining basin protests, or disruptions in phosphate production: why does the mining basin tragedy persist? Why do all successive governments before and after January 14, 2011, keep addressing this tragedy in the same way? And why is the issue of development in the mining basin brought up only when the production machine and the source of phosphate wealth are disrupted?
These questions are extensively tackled in the study “The future of development in the mining basin after or without phosphate” by Houcine Rhili, published by the “Rosa Luxembourg Foundation – North Africa Office” in October 2021.
Since its discovery by the colonizer in 1883, the region’s phosphate wealth has been unfairly exploited. Although the production in 2010 increased to reach about 12 million tons of raw phosphate and 8.5 million tons of commercial phosphate – which represents financial revenues that exceed 4 billion dinars per year – still, the conditions of areas surrounding the mining basin have not improved. Indeed, it could even be argued that in the last 20 years the most basic needs such as public services and minimal infrastructure have deteriorated.
The Gafsa Phosphate Company was subjected to a large-scale “cleansing” operation in 1985, when the structural adjustment imposed by the International Monetary Fund came into effect, during which more than 5,000 agents were abandoned in less than five years, leading to the end of recruitment by the company, which is the main and only operator in the mining basin area. As a result, unemployment has expanded at all levels, and the role played by the state and the company has diminished, leaving the region completely isolated from the economic cycle.
As a result, all economic, social and human indicators declined, turning the mining basin area into a hotbed of unemployment, smuggling, organized crime and marginalization. The accumulation of these social and human pressures led to an uprising in 2008, known as the Mining Basin Events, in which all the inhabitants of the region joined forces against the exploitation, marginalization, unemployment and disdain policies.
As a result, of these circumstances, and in view of the continued marginalization and exploitation of the region, the situation in the mining basin has deteriorated and resulted in a total shutdown of phosphate production and transfer throughout the mining basin and the subsequent suspension of the Tunisian chemical complex production units in both Gabes, Skhira, Sfax and Mdhila.
As such, and in light of the systematic destructive policy of the Gafsa Phosphate Company, this study provides an in-depth diagnosis of the region and puts forward proposals for an integrated development program without phosphate, while taking into consideration the specific characteristics of the region and its natural and human resources.
1. Diagnosing the current situation in the mining basin and the impact of phosphate mining activities
Development is not only a horizontal process of wealth production somewhere. It is rather the result of the interaction of natural and human potential in a defined and well diagnosed reality, so that wealth production falls in line with its immediate needs.
The first phase of the study on the future of development in the mining basin after or without phosphate, has provided an in-depth diagnosis of the real situation of towns in the mining basin, in addition to assessing the impact of phosphate mining on these areas at all levels, including social, economic and environmental.
The study has also reconstructed the historical trajectory behind the emergence and development of the mining basin towns, which were an inevitable consequence of phosphate discovery and exploitation. This historical analysis may enable us to identify the inhabitants’ social, cultural and historical features in the area and their transformation over time, along with the range of wealth they have generated in the course of the region’s social and cultural development.
This historical approach also allows us to understand the colonial influence in the region throughout phosphate mining at the urban, cultural and social levels.
Historical background behind the emergence of the mining basin towns
The mining basin is located in the southwest of Tunisia and belongs administratively to the governorate of Gafsa. The towns of the mining basin, namely Errdayef, Om Elaraies, Elmetlaoui and Elmdhila are located in the south and southeast of the governorate. These towns have been the nexus of phosphate mining throughout the country for over 130 years. How did these mining towns emerge historically and how did they develop successively along with the presence of phosphate mining and its decline?
The towns in the mining basin are not historical towns associated with ancient civilizations. They are rather newly established towns, whose existence was associated with the discovery of phosphate and the beginning of its extraction. In other words, these cities were created by phosphate and associated with it in both negative and positive ways. These towns did not exist before 1881, and their current inhabitants were nomads. If the emergence of these mining towns was linked to phosphate during the period of direct colonialism, it remained so after 1956, as phosphate remained the driving force behind the construction of these towns, absorbing their labor force and playing the role of a State that has been totally absent since their establishment.
The emergence of Gafsa mining basin towns can be summarized as the “golden age” of phosphate in its initial phase. It was a period of enormous investment and the setting up of mining infrastructures that lasted until 1930.
The 1930s were marked by the expansion of newly created towns linked to the expansion of phosphate mining. These towns imposed their expansion in a circular fashion, following the European engineering model with the beginning of large investments for phosphate mining before 1930. The colonizer also prepared the mining basin towns to accommodate the European communities who came to work in phosphate mining. The architecture was designed in a European style to create an atmosphere similar to the workers’ original setting to make them stay in areas that were originally not intended for settlement, housing nor work. The phosphate has also acted as a decisive factor leading to the nomadic indigenous tribes’ settlement, albeit relatively, at the beginning of the last century.
However, the global financial crisis of 1929, which lasted until 1956, had big social consequences on the mining basin towns resulting from the decline in phosphate investments coupled with the high level of migration to these newly established towns. The urban sprawl of the mining towns was impacted by a number of factors, the most important of which was the departure of the company’s French executives and of Italians who lived in neighboring towns. The foreign staff have been replaced by executives mainly migrants originating from the Tunisian coast and from Gafsa and Ksar but not from the mining basin. The historical exploration of the emergence and birth of the mining basin towns indicates that these towns have experienced waves of internal and external migration throughout the first half of the last century, which had a significant impact on the population diversity and cultural blending of these cities.
After independence, the colonizer left the country leaving behind houses, stores, tennis courts, movie theaters, gardens and parks, which were initially solely destined for use by the European workers and technicians. After their departure, the new managers of the Gafsa Phosphate Company settled there. However, due to the absence of the State in these mining towns, which remained at the mercy of the Gafsa Phosphate Company, all these infrastructures became obsolete, collapsed and became out of order, after the company gradually abandoned its social and economic role.
The Gafsa Phosphate Company has played a central role in the cities of the mining basin on the economic, social, educational, cultural and sports levels. In fact, it can be said that phosphate is the true creator of these towns, and that without it, they would not exist. The Gafsa Phosphate Company itself ensured the employment of the inhabitants of four towns, in addition to the provision of water and electricity, free transport and the supply of foodstuffs and necessities to the mining towns through the establishment of sales points namely shopping stores, which were established at the beginning of the 20th century and continued to operate until the mid-1970s.
Appraisal of the phosphate mining and beneficiation activity and its impact on the mining basin towns
Despite all the important roles played by the Gafsa Phosphate Company, which ultimately should have been played by the State that remains uninvolved, one cannot overlook the environmental and health effects of the phosphate mining activity -that had lasted for more than 130 years- on these towns and their inhabitants.
The negative effects of phosphate mining activities in the mining basin towns can be limited to four main areas: natural resources, especially water, public aesthetics, health and the setting (urban space).
Due to the weakness of the industrial fabric in the mining basin area, if at all, phosphate mining and beneficiation has been the dominant activity in terms of water resource use. The Gafsa Phosphate Company used the ventilation system to separate the phosphate from gangue, a highly polluting technique that inflicted the populations of the mining basin with the scourge of dust and daily air pollution, which caused countless victims of lung diseases.
In response to scientific and technical progress in the field of phosphate beneficiation, and after the air pollution became a disaster for the entire region, the Gafsa Phosphate Company began in the late 1970s to set and extend phosphate washing units in all mining sites; however, each technology has its environmental burden.
The washing of phosphates has led to a major negative impact, which is the use of large water resources despite the fact that most of them are of saline quality, in addition to water pollution caused by muddy water from the washing units. The Gafsa Phosphate Company is exploiting the water resources of the region through 18 deep wells and the pumping capacity of these wells is estimated at about 715 l/s, which represents a large pumping capacity in relation to the deep water reserve at the mining basin area. This means that the Gafsa Phosphate Company uses about 72% of the deep groundwater resources of the mining basin area annually and about 48% of the total water resources of the region. This means that if water abstraction by the Gafsa Phosphate Company continues at this rate, the sustainability of the phosphate activity over the next 20 years will be threatened, and the lives of people living in the mining basin towns will be threatened by the decline of the region’s vital water resources, in addition to the contamination of groundwater due to the discharge of muddy water from washing units into the natural environment, especially in the watercourses.
According to data and statistics published by the Gafsa Phosphate Company, the amount of mud discharged into the river channel network in the mining basin area exceeded 42 million tons between 1979 and 2000. The amount of mud deposited in the valley’s watercourses is estimated at 24 million tons between 2000 and 2010. These are contaminated quantities likely to have significant impacts on natural systems, including groundwater recharge. The mud constitutes a natural barrier to the infiltration of flowing water into the surface table and therefore into the deep underground tables.
All of this will have a significant impact on the recharge of the water tables, which will reduce water flow capacity in the medium and long term. Many areas have been affected by these mud deposits, particularly the Tebdit agricultural area, where many crops have been devastated, and a large number of fruit trees have been burned by this water, in addition to the desertification of large areas of land, especially during the floods of Oued Tebdit and Om El Arayes, which led to the spread of this muddy water over large areas. This water also contaminated the sandy valleys and contaminated some surface water tables in Tabdit, Errdaief, and Om El Arayes.
As for the general aesthetic landscape, the surface exploitation of phosphates is done through the transformation of the geological layers that cover the nine existing phosphate layers by using explosives and turning these geological layers into dust and small stones that can be converted from their natural sites to other sites. In a clearer sense, surface phosphate mining depends on the transfer of entire mountains from their positions to other sites to extract the layers of phosphate beneath them. This means completely distorting nature by erasing mountains and their peaks from nature and replacing them with piles of soil and stones detached resulting from explosions of these mountains.
According to the official reports of the Gafsa Phosphate Company, the quantities of soil and stones converted from their natural sites annually range from 70 to 140 million tons per year depending on the production capacity of crude phosphates which can provide a realistic picture of the reality and magnitude of the quantities that are converted annually. Considering that this mining method is based on blowing up natural mountains and replacing them with mountains of dust and stones after breaking them up with explosives, they represent sources of permanent and continuous pollution and dust. This method also radically and irreversibly changes the topography of mining areas, hence a change to the reality of geography and topographic and geological maps. This impact even goes beyond the general aesthetic landscape as it has repercussions on the level of scientific and geological legacy for future generations.
The damage to the general aesthetic views of the phosphate exploitation in the mining basin areas is not limited to the mines and the blowing up of natural mountains from their sites. The phosphate washing units still constitute significant damage to the population and urban fabric of the mining basin towns. These units are in the middle of the residential fabric and thus represent obstacles to these towns, both in terms of aesthetics and possibilities for organized expansion. In addition to the contaminated mud water discharged into the watercourses, these units also produce impurities and solid waste (larger than 2 mm) estimated annually at about 1.1 million tons that accumulate next to the washing units, thus contributing to the widespread dust on the one hand and damage to the aesthetics of urban spaces on the other hand, especially for El Metlaoui, Om El Arayes, and El Mdhila washing unit, where the washing units are located near urban areas.
As for the level of safety and robustness of residential dwellings, the underground mining of phosphate in the mining basin towns, which lasted about 100 years, left deep underground voids and caves that are located under the inhabited dwellings. After the Gafsa Phosphate Company abandoned the exploitation of the underground mines, these have been left without any studies undertaken to confirm their stability and the safety of the urban and human fabric above them. The first house collapse occurred in the late nineties in Errdaief under the underground production line called Z6, which crosses Cité du Grand Maghreb or what is historically known as the “Cité Swafa”. This incident, which demolished more than 10 luxury homes, has brought up, for the first time, the issue of safety of the urban fabric in the mining basin towns under the impact of underground mines.
Besides, the impact of mining activity on public health has been extended and affected not only the miners but also their families and towns. It is worth noticing that the phosphate beneficiation technique by ventilation, which has been used since the thirties of the last century and until the late eighties, has transformed the mining basin towns into dust cities par excellence.
These units emit hundreds of tons of dark dust a day that fall on homes and are concentrated in the air breathed by adults and children. This has made the inhabitants of mining towns the most vulnerable to chest diseases, allergies, and other diseases associated with air quality pollution. Silicosis can be considered the most prevalent in the population. Water intended for drinking in mining areas and extracted from deep underground tables has been a direct cause of oral diseases and tooth loss among the majority of inhabitants in the area whose teeth get yellowish at an early age. There is also the prevalence of kidney and urinary tract diseases resulting from the high carbonate and fluoride concentration of drinking water in the mining towns.
2.Natural and human development and depollution potential in the mining basin towns
Based on the demographic reality and structure of Gafsa in general and of the mining basin towns in particular, it must be emphasized that the mining basin towns besides representing a geographical and geological unit, they also constitute an economic and social unit, where the demographic structure and reality are very much alike. This calls for a similar set of indicators for the human development of both Errdaiyef, El Metlaoui, El Mdhilla, and Om El Arayes. The prolonged absence of the State and its substitution by the Gafsa Phosphate Company have made the region as a whole dependent on this company for employment, and social, cultural, and educational support.
To put it more bluntly, the company was a State within a State; and as soon as it had to withdraw from all the traditional and historical roles it used to play in the mining basin area, all the shortcomings of policy and economic choices made have become visible. Unemployment has spread at high rates, and all social and health services, transport, recreation, culture, sports, and all aspects related to social justice have declined. So far, development can’t be raised outside the Gafsa Phosphate Company, because there is no alternative to it till now, in the face of the continued absence of the regional state as a whole.
A central question has yet to be asked in this large development debacle: Will the mining basin area remain hostage to phosphate for their developmental and social progress? Is the region endowed only by phosphates as a natural resource for its development? or is the region abundant in resources but policy choices for development remain the problem?
Water Resources and Agricultural Land
Water resources at the mining basin consist of groundwater resources only, considering the weakness of rainfall and the absence of any reservoirs or dams to collect rainwater. Thus, the region as a whole supplies water to cover its population, services, and industrial needs from the groundwater resources available in the region.
As for agricultural land, the area of land that can be used for agricultural purposes in the mining basin is about 12,500 hectares, of which 4,237 hectares are irrigated areas. Through field inspections of many agricultural areas and irrigated perimeters in particular, and after a long conversation with a significant number of farmers, it was found that these agricultural projects, the majority of which have been launched since the mid-eighties, have succeeded in changing the character of a mining town from areas dependent on phosphate mining to areas capable of diversifying their economic activities. These projects also showed that investing in agriculture could absorb several unemployed workers and bring about a change in the economic and social structure of these towns.
From economic and cost efficiency perspectives, these agricultural projects can be characterized as being highly profitable, as most of the projects have grown over time with some of them reaching an annual turnover of one million dinars. However, this profitability could be furthered in terms of added value, if these areas are coupled with a processing industry and services in the region that would enable the actual increase in the direct income of farmers and increase the employment potential of mining towns in areas other than the phosphate field.
Agricultural activity is also usually associated with cattle breeding, namely sheep, goat, and camel breeding. In the areas of the mining basin, the most widespread breeding activity is that of goats and sheep. It is a traditional activity that is intended for local consumption, if not for family consumption. Some families undertake livestock activities as a hobby or as an additional activity to increase family income. As for camel breeding, it is monopolized by families living in desert or rural areas and is practiced as intensive economic activity, especially in El Metlaoui and El Mdhilla. Through field inspections and official figures of the departments in charge of livestock breeding at Gafsa Regional Commission for Agricultural Development (CRDA), the cattle stock in the mining basin towns is estimated at 75,000 sheep, 10,000 goats, and 3,500 camels. Despite these large figures, their economic and social profitability remained weak due to the small size of cattle stock per breeder, the marginality of the sector, and the lack of necessary support from the relevant departments.
Construction materials
The phosphate’s wealth endowed the mining basin with large study and research potential and attracted researchers interested in geology, development, geography, and topography. Over the past 100 years, large numbers of research, studies, in-depth research, and doctoral dissertations have been carried out in the region. Accordingly, it can be said that Gafsa is the region that has been most investigated in terms of geological characteristics and dimensions, especially with phosphate and its mining for the past 130 years. As a consequence of all the research and academic drive in the region, many building materials have been identified that represent as yet un-exploited natural resources due to the dominance of phosphate mining which is deemed the only natural wealth of the region.
By looking at many studies and researches field studies in the mining basin area, and based on the field visits carried out within the framework of the preparation of this study, we can say that the mining basin area is very rich in construction materials that can be used and exploited in many economic activities that can contribute to the development of the region, reduce labor unemployment and relieve pressure on the Gafsa Phosphate CompanyThe most important building materials, that are abundant in the mining area and have a potential for industrial application, can be summarized as follows: all kinds of limestone (limestone – dolomi – lime), various shapes and colors of clay, gypsum, and sand.
Geological and ecological sites
The mine basin area, besides the natural resources and construction materials outlined earlier in this report, is rich in ecological and geological sites of scientific and academic significance. The underground mining of phosphate in the mining basin areas has also generated a large number of caves and underground sites that are ideal for ecotourism and caving tourism and attract a large number of local and foreign visitors.
Thalaja site, located in Metlaoui, where phosphate was first discovered in the country in 1895, is a distinctive and unique ecological and geological site. This site holds the complete set of phosphate compounds, which represents a world singularity in this field. Thalaja site is also an educational and academic site for teaching geology at a natural scale where students and researchers can visually identify all the geological features associated with phosphates. In addition to this scientific and academic aspect, the site is also an important ecological site due to the presence of Thelja Gorge, which are openings in the rocky mountain that lead to the Thalaja River. These characteristics make the Thalaja site a potential destination for mountain and ecological tourism.
Reusable and recyclable Materials
the site contains large amounts of scrap iron, which consists of replaced iron columns and rails, wires that were used in production operations, hundreds of pieces of equipment and means of transportation that are out of operation, as well as iron residues of various sizes and uses. The amount of scrap metal that fills the company’s warehouses and spaces in all the mining towns can be estimated at 20,000 tons of scrap metal.
The company produces large quantities of waste from rubber conveyors. It can be said that the company has the longest network of conveyor chains. As a result, the company uses about 2 to 3 thousand tons of conveyors per year. These quantities are deemed to be reusable as granules in the cement plants’ ovens.
Decontamination of the mining basin area
The pollution caused by the Gafsa Phosphate Company for more than 130 years has turned the region into an environmental disarray, by damaging the components of the environment in every aspect including water, air, general aesthetics, mountains, and plateaus, in addition to the accumulation of huge amounts of waste, pollution and washing waste on large areas of the towns in the mining basin. Over time, pollution has become a major obstacle to development.
The Gafsa Phosphate Company is strongly required to prepare and implement an integrated program to remove the pollution caused by its activity within the framework of its actual reconciliation with its natural and human surroundings, through the decontamination program resulting from its activity, which can be divided into three sections: a section related to contaminated mud water, a section related to waste from the company’s activity that can be sent and valued, a section related to impurities and surface exploitation sites and a section related to underground exploitation sites (such as adits).
3.Proposing development projects
After having noted during this study that the mining basin does not lack natural resources or water to engage in a fair, balanced, and phosphate-free development, the greatest challenge remains to turn these natural resources and human energies into a real development that breaks with its reliance on phosphate, which is turning from a blessing into a curse for the whole basin. The Gafsa Phosphate Company is no longer able to play the role of the main job provider. It has also failed to be a locomotive of development because of the poor choices and policies that have been followed since 1956 in a continuity of colonial policies, built on viewing phosphate along with water as resources to be used and be ultimately left to its fate.
Accordingly, an alternative path must be followed to establish a more participatory, phosphate-free development alternative, more thoroughly researched and better linked to the natural and human potential on the one hand, and the community’s needs and aspirations on the other. Besides, the geographical border location of the mining basin areas should be taken into account, as it may play an important role in the development of the region as a whole.
Within this framework, after presenting all the development components in the region, and listing all the natural resources in the areas of the mining basin, in addition to what the Gafsa Phosphate Company can provide in terms of materials and other development capabilities besides phosphate, the study relied on a participatory approach in preparing the results of this study, through dialogue with all parties involved in the field of development including municipalities, organizations and local and regional civil society associations.
Indeed, the study has conducted a field survey, to investigate and determine the views of a representative sample of inhabitants in the mining basin towns. The survey addresses development challenges and those to be held accountable on the one hand, and the extent of their awareness about phosphate-free development potential in their area as well as the parties to take responsibility for future development in their region so that these towns do not disappear with the cessation of the mining activity.
General conclusions from the field survey
After processing the survey data and results with consideration of both the sampled respondents and mining towns, and after analyzing the most important results of the survey and polling the respondents’ opinion on the key questions -which have been designed to be closely linked to the current study and its objectives- the following conclusions could be drawn:
Respondents unanimously agreed (more than 98%) on the lack of development in all mining towns. According to the sampled respondents, the lack of development in mining towns is manifested in the spread of unemployment, poverty, and marginalization, which have made them become repulsive areas. The Gafsa Phosphate Company also remained in the residents’ collective consciousness as the only employer in the region, although a group of young people surveyed expressed that the company meant nothing to them, which makes sense given that these young people grew up in an era when the phosphate company stopped playing its old roles as a substitute for the state.
In addition to considering that the state is absent in these towns and that even if it exists, its existence is still sterile and ineffective, the inhabitants held accountable for the lack of development in the mining basin towns the authorities, trade unions, and local elites, although in varying proportions, with the consensus of most respondents that the Gafsa Phosphate Company is not responsible for the lack of development in the region as a whole.
Respondents also unanimously agreed that the mining basin towns can develop without or after phosphate and that these towns have a natural and human potential that would allow them to achieve effective development and productive wealth without phosphate, by focusing on the agricultural sector and construction materials in sand, clay, lime, and gypsum as components of the development of the region.
Respondents consider the Gafsa Phosphate Company, to remain an important player in achieving phosphate-free development in the mining towns, through its participation in the set up of development projects in new and renewable fields, with the responsibility of development funding to be held by both the state and the company as it is a state-owned body. Additionally, respondents view the private sector as being unable to venture into development projects in the region and thus should not be involved in the region’s development, especially since that has been and is still absent from the scene.
A large number of respondents also considered the protest as a means of pushing the state to fulfill its development commitments. This translates to the loss of trust between inhabitants and the state and its agencies, even though the dialogue is considered to be one of the most important means to stimulate the role of the population in the success and accomplishment of development projects in the mining basin towns.
The results also revealed that what makes the social and economic relations in the mining basin towns governed by traditional society foundations and centered around the tribal dimension, is that the largest number of those elected are selected based on blood ties; the widespread reluctance to participate in the elections, especially among youth. The respondents unanimously agreed on the negative role of the UGTT and its affiliated unions in achieving development in the area, in addition to the belief that the local authority represented by the municipal councils elected in 2018 shall not be involved in the towns’ development. Despite the new emergence of civil society in the region, most of the respondents in Errdaief, Om El Arayes, and El Metlaoui agreed on the importance of the role to be played by CSOs in achieving development in the region, except Mdhila area, where a large percentage of respondents considered that civil society has nothing to do with development. This response could probably be explained by the fact that civil society activities and presence in the area are still weak.
Respondents consider the Gafsa Phosphate Company, to remain an important player in achieving phosphate-free development in the mining towns, through its participation in the set up of development projects in new and renewable fields, with the responsibility of development funding to be held by both the state and the company as it is a state-owned body. Additionally, respondents view the private sector as being unable to venture into development projects in the region and thus should not be involved in the region’s development, especially since that has been and is still absent from the scene.
A large number of respondents also considered the protest as a means of pushing the state to fulfill its development commitments. This translates to the loss of trust between inhabitants and the state and its agencies, even though the dialogue is considered to be one of the most important means to stimulate the role of the population in the success and accomplishment of development projects in the mining basin towns.
The results also revealed that what makes the social and economic relations in the mining basin towns governed by traditional society foundations and centered around the tribal dimension, is that the largest number of those elected are selected based on blood ties; the widespread reluctance to participate in the elections, especially among youth. The respondents unanimously agreed on the negative role of the UGTT and its affiliated unions in achieving development in the area, in addition to the belief that the local authority represented by the municipal councils elected in 2018 shall not be involved in the towns’ development. Despite the new emergence of civil society in the region, most of the respondents in Errdaief, Om El Arayes, and El Metlaoui agreed on the importance of the role to be played by CSOs in achieving development in the region, except Mdhila area, where a large percentage of respondents considered that civil society has nothing to do with development. This response could probably be explained by the fact that civil society activities and presence in the area are still weak.
Proposal for development projects in the mining basin towns
The study puts forward several projects based on artistic, developmental, and natural grounds. These proposals are intended to serve as a starting point for a serious and fruitful discussion between all local actors, in particular, to draw up a vision for integrated development in line with the natural potential of the area, the existing human resources, and the population’s direct needs.
The potential investments that would bring about real development in the region are identified as follows: Construction materials (710 million dinars), agriculture (55 million dinars), manufacturing (6 million dinars), and environment (20.5 million dinars).
Thus, the total potential investment over the next five years is estimated at 800 million dinars. With the creation of about 3,000 direct jobs and more than 4,500 indirect jobs ( besides the current number of workers in plantation and environment companies, who will be integrated into the production of real wealth instead of the unemployment allowance they are currently receiving which is absorbing the phosphate company resources). This would bring an economic and social dynamic to the mining basin towns, converting them from towns that are expelling their residents to towns that are attracting people and labor from outside. This could also gradually liberate the region from a development pattern dominated by phosphate alone.
For the dream to become a reality for the effective and real development of the mining basin, a set of projects has been proposed in a variety of fields based on natural, human, economic, developmental, and social considerations.
The estimated cost of the investment at about 800 million dinars is perhaps proof that the takeoff of development cannot be less than this investment.
Conclusion
This study focused on diagnosing the reality of the mining basin towns and the historical trajectory of its emergence as well as the link between this emergence and phosphate discovery and mining. The Gafsa Phosphate Company and its role in the emergence and development of the mining basin towns and the development role it played until the mid-1980s have also been outlined; the Compagnie des phosphates de Gafsa equally played the role of state and company at the same time.
It employed almost all those who sought it. It was in charge of health, education, transportation, electricity, and water services, as well as the promotion of sports, culture, and recreation. It also maintained the public and collective facilities of these cities.
It’s an exceptional company in exceptional towns whose workers struggle with mountains to produce wealth the revenues of which are sent outside the region.
However, since the mid-1980s, the Gafsa Phosphate Company has abandoned all its roles vis-à-vis the mining basin’s towns and inhabitants, in the application of a structural adjustment reform program that included most of the public institutions active in competitive production. This sudden and ill-considered withdrawal from its role as a company and state has had the profound impact of creating a great social and developmental void.. The state and its public investments were also totally absent after the decline of the role that the Gafsa Phosphate Company used to play. In the early 1990s, these towns became major areas for retirees, marginalized people, organized crime, and border smuggling (Cantara).
For the Gafsa Phosphate Company to remain a national heritage that can produce for the benefit of all Tunisians from north to south, it has become necessary for the region to rid itself of the influence of phosphate and seek parallel development capacities and resources, so that the development of the mining basin becomes balanced and consistent with all its potential, including but not limited to phosphate.
After reviewing the geological, developmental, and economic research and studies carried out in the region, besides the meetings that were held with all the parties involved in the field of development in the mining basin towns, and through the field survey carried out in the framework of this study, it was found that the natural potential is available and that the region is full of human potential. However, under-development is the inevitable product of unjust policy choices made by authorities over decades in an intended and unintended alliance with opportunistic local elites, patronizing union behavior, tribal structure, and the principle of blood ties. This has turned the ongoing under-development of the mining basin areas into a multidimensional structural dilemma.
Despite all this, the population has underlined in the survey that development without phosphate is possible and that the region has important natural and human attributes that will allow it to be a diversified development pole open to the country and neighboring countries within the framework of a new development vision in which the State and its public and financial institutions will be the driving force behind this development. The private sector in the mining basin does not exist and has no tradition of investment.
It should also be emphasized that phosphate in the next stage will not be a curse for the region but must be transformed into a blessing and a drive for development even without it. The Gafsa Phosphate Company is freed from its company-state stereotype and resumes its function as a public company working to provide wealth to the state budget. Likewise, the state must play its full role in the region as it does in other parts of the country.
Development with and after phosphate could be reached, as long as there is political will and Tunisia’s rulers change their vision of the Gafsa Phosphate Company, from a company to be milked to a public company operating in a competitive sector that needs to succeed and accumulate wealth for all the people from the south to north.